Day of the Meteor Shower
by SuperBear
Summary: Blinded by the meteor shower, Cassandra Carver sees visions of those who will become meteor freaks as well as a mysterious figure who saves Metropolis and all the world...


Cassandra Carver had something horrible happen to her that day.

She made the mistake of looking out her window just in time to be exposed to the blast of a meteor rock. It was the last thing she ever saw.

As she lay on the floor in darkness, her mind filled with visions.

Her first visions were of the meteor shower and what it had done to the people of Smallville that day. Children, teens, adults: all had been affected.

"Stupid Greg Arkin," Eric Summers grumbled.

Although only three years old, Eric Summers already had to wear glasses. When Eric had complained to his father about this, Mr. Summers told him to grow up. As he went out to his backyard, Eric felt so angry he wished lightning would strike him.

He nearly got his wish as huge flaming rocks started falling from the sky.

Eric didn't know it but he had had just enough exposure to meteor rock that his body, when exposed to an electrical charge, would be able to absorb powers from another person. Almost like a parasite or a leech.

In the yard next door, Greg Arkin, a little boy visiting Smallville for a few days, had a similar experience. Only moments before he had been down on all fours studying some bugs. Now he was curled up in a ball, still shaking from his near-miss with a meteor rock. He had been exposed just enough so that, if bitten by a swarm of insects, he would gain insect powers.

In a cornfield near the Ross creamed corn factory a young Lex Luthor dived out of the way to avoid the blast of a meteor rock. Above him, Jeremy Creek's body filled with electricity just before he slipped into a coma

In downtown Smallville, a young Lana Lang, having just witnessed the death of her parents, wailed hysterically. A photographer from Time magazine quickly snapped a picture. He had been sent to do a feature on small town America and football. But now he saw a different headline: "Heartbreak In The Heartland."

Although she didn't know it, the visions Cassandra saw weren't always in perfect chronological order. And they skipped all over the place.

Across town in the Smallville Park, Rose Greer lectured her fidgeting little girl. Although born with a rare soft bone disease, Tina Greer energetically pushed her mother away. .

"I want to play with Lana," she pouted. "We were both supposed to dress up like fairies."

"Oh, Tina, you are going to be the death of me," Rose moaned. That's when meteor rocks landed dangerously close to them. First, Rose screamed because of the meteor rocks. Then she gasped. Suddenly her daughter looked exactly like Lana Lang.

Neither one of them knew it but the meteor rocks had done far more than just alter Tina's bone structure; that would only allow her to become taller and shorter. Instead Tina's molecules had been altered so she could take on the appearance of anyone she wanted and even talk like that person just by thinking about that person.

It was the same with Alicia Baker. One moment she was on the swings thinking about playing tennis. The next moment she was yards away in the tennis courts. She could now teleport to a place just by thinking about it.

In his crop duster, Eddie Cole did his best to dodge the meteor rocks. But at one point he looked down, and he saw one of the meteor rocks deliberately swerve.

Eddie knew craft better than most. That was a ship.

Inside that ship the Jor-El computer program sent out a coded message then quickly downloaded itself into the Kawatche caves. Unfortunately, the Kryptonian computer technology in those caves was so ancient and primitive that it corrupted the computer program. The first thing the malfunctioning Jor-El program did was snatch one Lindsay Harrison from her car and store her away in another dimension.

On the ground in the midst of all the chaos a screaming woman gave birth. Her baby boy was named Jordan Cross.

From his observatory in New York, Virgil Swann intercepted Jor-El's coded message.. He didn't know it then but it would take him years to decrypt it.

Cassandra lay in entranced silence as the visions continued.

Finally the meteors stopped falling. The fields were silent and smoking.

In one field there were two little boys. One boy was taken into the arms of a farmer's wife, one Martha Kent. Another little boy was hunted by men with guns and put in a cage.

In the corn field near the Ross creamed corn factory, the young Lex Luthor, bald except for a few wisps of red hair and still in his school uniform for Excelsior boarding school, lay silent and trembling. Towering above him, a formidable figure, his father Lionel looked at him with an expression of horror and disdain.

Cassandra then saw visions of the future.

She saw people in despair, their faces forlorn and half-covered in shadow. Then they looked up and saw a figure in red and blue standing on a rooftop. The people smiled and pointed. But one dark-haired young man simply looked around and took note of their reaction.

Then she saw that same dark-haired young man standing high up on a rooftop. He wore a long black coat with a great white "S" on his chest. He was looking down on a city. Metropolis, it looked like.

Then she saw him lifting the "Daily Planet" globe up through the air. Below him people applauded and cheered.

Now Cassandra saw people looking angry, cruel, mean. Each one had some strange symbol on his or her forehead, a symbol like an upside-down horseshoe. Above them a figure in red and blue moved a fiery planet across the sky, away from the people, away from Earth.

The forehead symbols vanished, and the people smiled and applauded.

Then Cassandra saw a brown-haired brown-eyed woman. She looked out a plane window and the dark-haired figure in red and blue smiled back at her.

Although Cassandra Carver had not yet called for help, she did not feel afraid. Instead she felt hope..


End file.
